Weird Science, Religion, Poetry, Etc. from Garrett Scott, Bookseller
Dr. Burke worried about the health of everyone but his nurse, whom he attempted to kill.
Richard Griffin is something of a celebrity in then field of eccentric and bad poets. Item 84 is his The Melancholy Yak and Other Poems, published in 1917. Among his verses is the classic: "While upon earth I was living, / Fridays, I ran about giving / Catholic Wops hungry young / Sandwiches, made of beef tongue." Weren't Friday's reserved for fish? $150. If you like this, the good news is that Scott has a couple more Griffin classics available for sale.
Dr. William P. Burke offered a mix of sensible dietary advice and quackery circa the early 1900s in The Constructive and Remedial Properties of Food. He recommended a natural diet, although he strongly condemned root beer. Burke ran Burke's Sanitarium in Santa Rosa, California, but his career was disrupted when he was convicted of attempting to kill one his nurses by blowing her up as she slept in a tent. Item 33. $50.
Charles Pease was an early anti-smoking crusader. The New York dentist has been credited with advancing legislation to outlaw smoking in subways and other public places. Item 139 is his The Smoking Rector, published in 1936. Despite his success in combating smoking, Scott notes. "(h)is efforts against ginger ale, meat, vinegar, and lollipops, however, met with only mixed success." $25.
Item 92 is Stories, by Jessie Heckman, published in 1896. She mixes true stories, such as an 1894 tour of the White House, with the fantastic like an invasion of giants: "when the little girl and her mother saw all the giants coming, she went to the barn and called the hired man and he came in and brought his Gattling gun and gattled and gattled until he killed all the giants, but the big one" [were the other giants small?]. Miss Heckman can be forgiven her childish prose. She was only six at the time. Jessie was the daughter of Chicago attorney Wallace Heckman, and while we cannot be certain, believe she grew up to be Jessie Heckman Herschl, who graduated from the University of Chicago and, half a century later, was writing articles about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. This copy is signed in a juvenile signature by Miss Heckman dated July 20, 1896. Had she become a famous author, this book would probably be extraordinarily expensive, but she did not, so it is priced at $50.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
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Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/00d5fd41-2542-4a80-b119-4886d4b9925f.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.")
